Re: The Bank of the Internet!? (fwd)

[zeek@IO.COM (zeek)]

More news from FUTURE-C in Re:gards to The Bank of the Internet.  I say
again that I know not much about this biz or crit... I only post it here
for your info:  

Forwarded message:

*> Date:    Tue, 12 Oct 1993 22:13:35 -0700
*> From:    John Frost <frost@NETCOM.COM>
*> Subject: Re: The Bank of the Internet!?
*> 
*> The Capitalization of the Internet. And I thought it was gonna come from the
*> outside. All this talk of AT&T or TCI buying parts of the net and eventually
*> kicking those who won't pay exorbinate prices (that is the nightmare, right>)
*> off the Internet (or the DataHighway, as it will then be called) is just dust
*> in the wind compared to what this Eric guy is planning.
*> 
*> Actually, his idea isn't that bad. It would certainly help those shareware
*> developers to earn some dough and us Authors could get a few pennies for our
*> words. It won't be too long before somebody thinks they have information that
*> people would be willing to pay for. They'll set up an email list and you'll
*> have to pay to be on it. Clarinews will make more money. The Electronic Zines
*> can recover some costs, and even the OTIS gallery could collect some dues.
*> Soon it will become obvious who has the capital to control the net's
*> information (my bet is on Bill Gates), and a new hierarchy based on the old
*> hierarchy of capitalism will soon run the Internet. (this is of course a bleak
*> vision, but I haven't been given reason to think otherwise.)
*> 
*> Chandler wrote this:
*> + But the real boggler is that this fellow Eric is, with the backing of
*> + the Electronic Frontier Foundation, going to start a Credit Union based on
*> + up-to-date encryption schemes and using the Internet as the monetary
*> + highway! It involves using something called digital money -- a system of
*> + encrypted data that expires over time, but that a highly flexible ability
*> + to purchase quantities or services. The data itself will be located
*> + over several nodes, so that no one site has all the info about your
*> + account, but that any "quorum number" of bank nodes can reconstruct the
*> + whole picture of your assets. Anyone trying to crack the system would
*> + have to crack, not just one or two nodes, but a quorum number. Such nodes
*> + will be distributed internationally, though favoring nations with
*> + encryption-favorable legislation.
*> 
*> Sounds Technically sound, but as a political entity? I don't think it will
*> hold water. Doesn't it have to pass the Federal Banking System board or
*> something. THat should take nearly 5 years. Buy then don't you suspect the net
*> will have morphed beyond the culture that would make this system needed?
*> 
*> This feels like just another introduction of what was bad in the ER (everyday
*> reality) that we might surpass in VR.
*> 
*> + I'm oversimplifying all this. But the whole notion of a Bank of the
*> + Internet, backed by the EFF and running encrypted international monetary
*> + transactions seems... well, this is Future Culture: what do you think?
*> 
*> It Stinks. Where do I sign up.
*> 
*> -indigo
*> ------------------------------